Mike Gadd has seen it all.
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His family name goes back generations in the Upper Murray - something you can tell the Walwa cattle farmer is quite proud of when he speaks of history of the Gadd name in cattle.
But when fire tore through his Upper Murray property on New Year's Eve, he wasn't sure his wife Joy and himself would be able to hold their 50th annual bull sale.
From ash and terror comes regeneration, and here the Gadds are, with 65 of their best Angus bulls up for sale on Friday.
The Glen Angus sale is being held on the Glenview property on Shelley Road, from 1.30pm and Mike said it wouldn't be happening without the help of family, friends and colleagues.
"We were 75 per cent burnt out, we had a bit of a rocky start to the year, but with the help of largely a good season but also lots of colleagues and friends who shifted cattle for us and the like," he said.
"We have been really lucky to recover quite quickly - it is business as usual now.
"It is just amazing we have been able to carry on, which can you imagine at the time of the fire and in the heat of the moment I was thinking well this isn't going to make it too easy to run our 50th bull sale.
"But we made it."
IN OTHER NEWS:
The Glen herd of cattle was established by Mervyn and Jean Gadd in 1939 with the purchase of 30 selected Angus heifers and a grey bull.
From this foundation, a grey breeding program was developed into a herd of 250 grey breeders. In 1962, The Murray Grey Society was formed. The Glen was the largest foundation herd, providing 80 per cent of the straight-bred registered grey females.
The inaugural sale and the 16 years after that were conducted on The Glen property near Mount Alfred in 1971 by the family partnership, Mervyn Gadd & Sons.
From there Mike became the cattle breeding program and sales manager with Mervyn as his mentor and when the family partnership dissolved in 1985 Mike and Joy took over the property, about half of The Glen's registered cow herd and The Glen Pastoral Co.
A further 20 annual sales of grey cattle were conducted by The Glen Pastoral Co. on The Glen property before the couple moved to their new property Glenview in 1997.
Over the past 50 years, The Glen has consigned registered cattle across Australia and has exported cattle and genetics to programs in UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Japan, Russia, China and Kazakhstan.
Friday's sale is also available through AuctionsPlus.